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UC-Weber State preview

Remember
a week ago when UC was in the middle of a drought in which it had dropped five
of six games and was headed to the Big East tournament with zero momentum on
its side.

Who
thought the Bearcats could make any kind of run in New York? Who, at the time, thought a
postseason berth of any kind was secure? Who thought they could save their
season - and the wrath of the fans against Mick Cronin - in just three games?

Who
thought they would have been excited with an NIT selection?

Not many,
that's who. Not me, for sure. But after surviving Rutgers and, stunning Louisville and pushing West Virginia until the final second of the
game, the outlook for UC is suddenly much more positive. It's two victories
away from a 20-win season. It gets at least one more opportunity to play in
front of a home crowd. It gets to continue to try to win in the month of March.

"It's about
how to win in March and how to stay focused in March," Mick Cronin said. "We've
played very few games in March. It was good for us to stay in New York as long as we could and it will be
great to stay in this tournament as long as we can. It's good for us to go
through the process of being in the postseason."

If
anybody has impressed since the beginning of the Big East tournament, it's been
freshman forward Lance Stephenson. After a solid freshman season in which he
unanimously was voted onto the conference's all-rookie team - but still failed
to live up to the expectations that were set for him before the season -
Stephenson had big breakout games on national TV during UC's tournament run.
What was most impressive was that he, for the first time in his college career,
simply took over games.

He
recorded 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists vs. Rutgers and then followed
that with 12 points against Louisville and a 19-point, seven-rebound
performance in the West Virginia loss.

"He's
just a young player with talent finding his way," Cronin said. "They can't be
who somebody wants them to be. They have to worry about getting better every
day and giving their best effort. It's just a process they go through. Lance's
biggest growth recently has been that his rebounding has gone up and his
turnovers have gone down. That's been big. He's struggled when he's turned the
ball over. It's hard to put the ball in his hands, if he's not getting shots
off. There's no doubt he's been more aggressive lately, but it's all in the
decisions he's been making lately."

And as
for the thoughts of Deonta Vaughn, who will never play in the NCAA tournament?

"It's not
the tournament that I wanted, but what can I say?" he said. "We lost a tough
one (vs. West Virginia)
that hurt us deep down. I've never been to the NIT either. It's better than the
CBI."

--Cronin
reiterated during his Monday news conference that Rashad Bishop is still
suspended. Aside from that, he didn't have much to say about the junior forward
who averaged 8.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and provided the team with
its best perimeter defender.

To
Cronin, the squad is deep enough to withstand the loss of just one player.

"I don't
think we're that much different," Cronin said. "Our rebounding and our defense
were excellent in New York.
Those were two things he did really well. Jaquon (Parker) is capable of giving
us toughness and Ibrahima (Thomas) and Darnell (Wilks) both rebounded the ball.
They're the guys who took up most of those minutes."

--Cronin
also discussed how sophomore guard Dion Dixon is handling the aftermath of his
last-second turnover in the West Virginia game that ultimately led to the
banked-in 3-pointer by De'Sean Butler that gave the Mountaineers the win.

"He's
better," Cronin said. "It's just an unfortunate one of those things as a young
player. You can't think about one play. We missed numerous tip-ins in the game.
We missed free throws. We all had mistakes, including myself throughout the
game. You can't put the blame on one player or one play at the end of the
game."